~ Looking At Football And The World Through A Frosted Window

Papers and Paywalls.

On a Monday, I buy the Times. I like the football supplement, and the articles by the likes of Gabriel Marcotti, Bill Edgar, Tony Cascarino et al.

I pay £1 for the honour.

That gets me the physical newspaper, but if I wanted to read that same articles online, I would ve disallowed by the famed Times paywall. Even articles that were written at least partially in response to me have remained hidden there.

The same is true of the Sun, though you pay only 40p for that dubious honour.

I tend to get more news online, however. This is where the Times falls down. I don’t always want to become inky while reading, and sometimes leave the paper at work.

I’d like to see a code in the newspaper each day, allowing access to that day’s articles online. It could be a limited use code (5 log-ins maximum, say) and cancelled after 24 hours, but allowing access to the site that they charge for viewing to the people who have already paid for content would, surely, increase readership.

It might even instigate a spike in subscriptions to the site behind the paywall, as those who are impressed with what they see decide to sign up.

The rest of the week, I read either the i, or the Guardian, both of which are free online.